Podcasts

According to analysis done by savings fintech start-up MyTreasury.co.za, South African’s household savings rate comes last when ranked against the G20 countries. This is distressing news during savings month as it means that too many South Africans are living in debt or eating into their capital.

Source: MyTreasury

These finding are consistent with the worrying picture painted by Old Mutual Savings Monitor: among urban working households, an alarming 40% of respondents said they have no form of formal retirement savings at all. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they would rely on government and 38% their children to support them in retirement. The situation is likely much worse among the unemployed population.

In addition, many of those South Africans who do manage to squirrel away some money aren’t saving wisely. While 16 million do have savings accounts, they are emptier than they should be and, according to the latest SA Reserve Bank statistics, about 40% of this money sits in accounts that offer very low interest rates, if any interest at all.

A person who has savings could be earning as much as 10% on their money each year, and growing their wealth faster, just by switching to higher-interest paying accounts.

Since the launch of MyTreasury.co.za in late 2016, the independent personal finance comparison website has allowed more than 250 000 South Africans to compare their saving options online – helping them to identify the best interest- rate options based on their personal situations and requirements. The easy-to-use service is free and gives users suitable alternatives once they have answered a few simple questions. It searches 600 different rates at 10 financial institutions to find the best options. Users can select amounts from R1 000 to R50 million, and specify how soon they might need access to their money (ranging from one day to five years) – and the options are constantly expanding.

During national savings month many organisations are coming out with useful tips and campaigns to get South Africans excited about saving.

Recommendations about how to save range from lifestyle changes – such as hunting for bargains, limiting luxury spending and committing to put away a fixed amount of money every month – to more long-term strategies like setting financial goals, consolidating debt and paying off loans early.

MyTreasury.co.za has come up with a novel way to boost savings. For those who are currently saving, it suggests they grow their wealth by investing more wisely.

Warren Kopelowitz, CEO of MyTreasury.co.za, explains: “Efficient saving can make a massive difference to your wealth. Moving your cash from a call account that offers returns of 3% to a long-term fixed deposit with an interest rate of 10%, for example, would effectively double your wealth over 10 years!”

With so much to be gained from switching to higher interest rate deposits, why do so many South Africans continue to keep their money in low- or no-interest paying bank accounts? The savings market is opaque and complex, making it virtually impossible to identify the highest-paying savings account that best suits an individual’s requirements.

For instance, some banks offer higher rates for seniors but do a poor job of marketing this. And it’s difficult to find bank-rate data without comparing rates across multiple banks and products. Trying to find the best rate for the specific profile and savings preferences of an individual is even more convoluted and time-consuming.

MyTreasury.co.za considers the user’s personal profile, including factors such as their age, to determine whether they are eligible for a preferential rate. In the current economic climate, nobody can afford to leave their money sitting idly.

“Savings accounts are a great way to encourage smarter wealth management,” says Kopelowitz. “Just about everyone has a bank account, and by urging people to see their ordinary bank accounts as tools for actively generating income, we hope to make South Africans keener to save. It doesn’t cost you anything to get higher returns on your cash, but you need to know how to compare and where to look.”

MyTreasury.co.za is a gold member of AlphaCode, a club for fintech start-up entrepreneurs powered by Rand Merchant Investments. As AlphaCode head Dominique Collett says: “Consumers need the right information to make good financial decisions.” She adds that the complexity of savings products and different interest rate structures and calculations makes it difficult for consumers to accurately compare the available options, and is a major problem in growing SA’s savings culture. “Being able to compare products so you can assess value is important in a competitive market. MyTreasury.co.za is therefore a valuable addition in the fintech landscape as it empowers consumers to make good financial decisions.”

Even if you don’t regularly listen to podcasts yourself, you’re probably familiar with the praise they’ve recently received as a marketing tool. With an estimated 73 million monthly listeners in the U.S. alone, podcasting offers today’s advertisers a new (and effective) way to reach a large number of consumers.

Unsurprisingly, advertisers have taken this as an opportunity to bet big.

Podcast advertising spending broke $200 million for the first time in 2017, and is expected to exceed $500 million by 2020.

But they aren’t just spending on ads; more and more brands are beginning to use podcasts as part of their content marketing strategies, too. Spotify, Tinder and GE, among a host of other examples, have all jumped on board with branded podcasts because, as so aptly put in a Fast Company article, “branded podcasts are the ads people actually want to listen to.”

Reaping the benefits of podcasts isn’t just limited to major companies, though. With the right approach, startups can also take advantage of this new, powerful channel to reach a wider audience and gain brand credibility.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

You don’t have to host your own show

Branded podcasts often come with a hefty price tag, which can make them a tough sell for most entrepreneurs. A full season of a branded show can cost upward of a half million dollars, and even reach seven figures for one that is very well-produced.

Fortunately, as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to host or produce your own show to take advantage of podcasts. Simply participating in the podcast ecosystem by joining other people’s shows as a guest can help you effectively reach your audience, too. The only thing you have to invest is your time.

If you’re an expert in a certain field, people want to hear what you have to say, and odds are there’s already a podcast out there that those people are listening to. With that in mind, a good way to start getting involved with podcasts is by reaching out to hosts of podcasts in your field, and offering to share some of your unique insights on their shows. Even if the shows have a small listener base, they can lead to bigger opportunities in the future.

Also, once you build up a solid repertoire of podcasts and have done the work of promoting them, people will see you as a good partner to work with and will keep inviting you back. Sometimes the results can be surprising. In my case, for example, I’ve even had people apply for jobs because they heard me on a podcast.

Your omni-channel approach shouldn’t stop at creation

While you don’t have to create your own podcasts, they can be a worthwhile investment if you do. Sephora’s#Lipstories, Basecamp’s The Distance and Drift’s Seeking Wisdom have all demonstrated how much value building your own branded podcasts can bring, even for startups and other small companies.

As such, if you do decide to create your own podcast, it’s important to make them available on as many channels as possible. For starters, your podcasts should definitely be accessible for users on smartphones, tablets or other portable devices, as these are where 76 percent of listeners tune in. Needless to say, however, you should also accommodate users who prefer listening on a traditional laptop or computer.

Similarly, the omni-channel approach should extend to the platforms on which you host and promote the podcast. For example, iTunes may be the most common platform, but it’s definitely not the easiest for the more than two billion users of Android devices. With this in mind, you should also consider hosting your shows on other platforms such as YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and AudioBoom, among many others.

Once your podcasts are live, you should promote them on as many platforms as possible. Embed them on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media platforms, with the goal of creating as many touch points as you can with your audience. Couple this by asking your listeners to subscribe to your channel at the end of the show and to share with their friends. While it may be a simple tactic, it can often be the spark that gets the fire going.

You must focus on consistency and quality

Regardless of whether you decide to create your own podcasts or participate as a guest on others’, it’s crucial that you make sure your content, your hosts and your guests all align with your brand. This is not to say the podcast must be about your product, but it should be related to the story your brand is trying to tell.

Moreover, you should be sure to constantly produce fresh content. This means releasing shows regularly; whether it be once per day/week/month/etc., the aim should always be consistency. This encourages your consumers to build habits, say, by tuning in for your show every Monday morning on the way to work. Creating an editorial calendar can be a particularly useful practice to keep you accountable and prepared. It also helps to have a few podcasts recorded ahead of time to use as a buffer in case you get sick or if a guest drops out.

Finally, even if you do a video podcast, the most important thing is to focus on audio quality first. If you don’t have good audio quality, you run the risk of quickly turning off your listeners. Therefore, if you choose to invest in anything, buy a good USB mic, and be sure to test your audio first. People can forgive poor video, but poor audio is a deal-breaker. If you think about it, you’ve probably sat through a movie with a fuzzy projector, but would leave immediately if the film was hard to hear.

Despite their recent popularity, the fact remains that podcasts are a young (and often underutilized) technology, particularly for marketers. Many big brands have already begun to produce high-quality audio content for enthusiastic listeners, but there is still a lot of room for startups to up their involvement. Fortunately, getting involved doesn’t have to cost a penny – it just takes a bit of networking and an extra half hour here or there. In the end, it’ll always be worth it.

Too many startups are impatient, and it’s one of the key reasons why they can’t scale or secure funding, says Vinny Lingham, one of South Africa’s Shark Tank investors, and the founder of Gyft, which he exited for $50 million, and Civic, an identity protection and management startup based in the US.

“If you want to achieve something great, you need a plan,” he said at the third Secrets of Scale event that we hosted at the MESH Club in Rosebank. The aim of my show, The Matt Brown Show, is to give entrepreneurs access to the top entrepreneurial minds in South Africa, unpacking their experiences and top advice, and effectively helping business owners and startups to learn from their growth journeys.

Vinny Lingham and the other panellists at the event, Jason Goldberg, founder and CEO of 10X-e and co-founder of Edge Growth; Vuyo Tofile, CEO of Entbanc Group; and Marnus Broodryk, a fellow investor on Shark Tank with Vinny and the CEO of Transaction Capital SME Services, were all able to share valuable insights around what it takes to build a startup that will scale, and why the necessity of landing a funder is a myth.

Vinny’s advice was particularly on point: “Lay the right foundations and focus on your process. Don’t be impatient. Too many entrepreneurs are trying to run before they can walk or even crawl. Be thoughtful about how you put the business together and above all, go slow. Hiring more engineers and building bigger teams doesn’t necessarily speed things up. You can’t throw money at the problem and think you’ll get there quicker. Business doesn’t work like that.”

Start with the goal in mind

In my experience, based on hundreds of interviews with top entrepreneurs, as well as building my own business and brand, there’s the business you are now, and then the business you’re becoming. You need to always be innovating and keep that end gaol in mind: What kind of business will you become?

Vinny used his own experiences with Gyft to illustrate his point. “From day one we focused on high levels of user engagement. We needed conversion rates. We focused on that first, followed by what percent of return customers we achieved, and then who bought more and more. In other words, we concentrated on the metrics, and on our customers.

“If you’re moving too quickly, you end up with a product that’s not ready, people who aren’t happy and everyone in a hurry. Most importantly, you don’t have a scalable, repeatable product and market offering that’s ready.”

However, if you focus on your customers, not only will you have a revenue stream to build on, you won’t need external funding. “Not every business can be bootstrapped,” he admitted. “If your business is reliant on a product development cycle, you need external investment. But if you have something to sell from the word go, and a runway of 12 months, you can launch without an investor.

“From there, the biggest signs that your start-up is ready to scale are a high customer retention rate and good strong lifetime value of a customer – both of which you can only determine if you’ve been operating in the market. You need to know what each customer can bring in, your profit margin, as well as that there’s only a marginal fixed cost to each additional customer.”

Putting customers – and profits – first

Jason, Marnus and Vuyo all had valuable insights to add, sharing their top lessons in scaling a startup, and echoed Vinny’s sentiments that funding is not the most important element in launching a business.

“99% of business owners don’t start with funding,” said Marnus. “They change something, tweak things here and there and find a way to get revenue from customers.

“That’s how we did. We didn’t want to be the biggest accounting firm in South Africa, we wanted to be the most profitable. We focused on our pricing and product fit and made sure that if we took the business from ten people to 1 000, we could do it with the same model.

“There’s no point in getting 10 000 people onto your platform – all based on VC funding – and then the cash runs out and you realise you can’t monetise the business. It’s pointless and it happens a lot. Scale must be profitable. You can’t keep adding people and scaling the business if the costs are so high that you can’t monetise what you’re doing. Start small, get your customers on board, and use your own revenue to grow.”

Vuyo agreed. “Too many entrepreneurs don’t focus on the product. We all want to scale, but no one starts out trying to cater for 1 billion people. You need to cater for your first 100. Focus on them and make sure they’re extremely happy. If you aren’t focusing on your first customers and they aren’t happy, you won’t grow into other markets. We scaled as a consequence of that early focus.”

“When the market comes to you, you’re ready,” added Jason. “That’s when you have a repeatable model that’s scalable. What you want is mediocre people who can do an extraordinary job through how you’ve set up the business. Once you’ve proven that over and over with very happy customers, then you’re ready to scale.”

His advice was simple. “Silicon Valley has a great analogy – are you selling a vitamin pill, or a headache pill? Your customers can stop taking a vitamin pill and they might not notice for months. If you’re selling a headache pill though, they notice every minute without you. Your customers must feel pain in the absence of your solution – and no one else must be able to take away that headache as quickly or conveniently as you. Shift away from product-based pricing to value based pricing. What is taking the headache away worth?”

Focus on your business

“Don’t waste your time on investor meetings,” was Vinny’s final word to the entrepreneurs in the room. “The percentage of deals closing is extremely low, and it’s a total distraction. You spend so much time chasing investment that you aren’t concentrating on your startup.

“Focus on your business. When you get your KPAs right, you know what your north star is, and you have your metrics, then investors will come to you. Raise as little as possible at the right price at the right time. The wrong price at the wrong time can actually damage your business.”

VIDEOS & PODCAST

PART 1 – BUILDING THE AEROPLANE

This segment will be the majority of our focus and will cover practical “how to steps” for scaling your business. We’ll be revealing how to design a scale ready business and walk you through common pitfalls that all entrepreneurs will encounter as they “build the aeroplane” and how to avoid them. We’ll also reverse engineer how to design a scale ready business from a 150 strong team all the way down to a 5 person team.

PART 2 – BUILT FOR WINTER

This segment is all about how to ensure that you remain profitable as you scale. We’ll unpack how to bring different revenue streams, partnerships and products/services to together to help you weather any storm.

PART 3 – SCALE BLUEPRINT

In this segment we’ll explore the systems that can help you scale, how to automate repetitive processes and outsource non-essential tasks and how to design a business that makes more money while you sleep than when you’re awake.

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